News

Lamar Community News

Celebrate National Park Week with free admission to Bent's Old Fort

The high adobe walls of Bent's Old Fort. (Lance Maggart / Lamar Ledger)

Go wild for the history, nature, trails, archeology and living history of Bent's Old Fort National Historic Site (NHS) during National Park Week, April 19 through 27, 2014.

To get the celebration going, Bent's Old Fort will waive admission fees on Sat., April 19 and Sun., April 20.

Guided tours of the fort by interpreters in historic clothing will be offered at 10:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. on both days. The weekend forecast looks wonderful for a hike on the 1.5 mile hiking trail along the Arkansas River.

Also, the park store is offering a 15 percent discount off all purchases over the weekend.

"National Park Week is a great reminder of all the special places the American people have chosen to protect around the country," said Park Superintendent Alexa Roberts.

"We hope folks take advantage of this opportunity to visit their local national parks here in Southeast Colorado - be it Bent's Old Fort NHS near La Junta or Sand Creek Massacre NHS outside of Eads."

Visit nationalparkweek.org for more information about what is going on at other National Park Service sites throughout the country. You can share your park experiences and photos on the Web site.

National Park Week is also a good time to explore local parks, trails, and architectural gems sustained through National Park Service programs such as the Rivers Trails Conservation Assistance program and the National Register of Historic Places.

Article Comments

We reserve the right to remove any comment that violates our ground rules, is spammy, NSFW, defamatory, rude, reckless to the community, etc.

We expect everyone to be respectful of other commenters. It's fine to have differences of opinion, but there's no need to act like a jerk.

Use your own words (don't copy and paste from elsewhere), be honest and don't pretend to be someone (or something) you're not.

Our commenting section is self-policing, so if you see a comment that violates our ground rules, flag it (mouse over to the far right of the commenter's name until you see the flag symbol and click that), then we'll review it.